This page explains every way this site does or will make money, and the rules we hold ourselves to. It is written to be read by an actual person rather than to satisfy a regulator, though it is meant to do both.
The short version
- Nothing is live yet. At the time of writing we run no advertising and earn no affiliate commission. This page describes what will happen when we do.
- Affiliate links never cost you anything extra. The commission comes out of the retailer’s margin, not your price.
- A commission has never decided a recommendation and never will. If we would not suggest something to a friend, it does not go in an article.
- Disclosure goes on the article itself, at the top, where you will see it before you read — not buried on this page.
- We do not sell coverage. No sponsored posts, no paid reviews, no paid placement, at any price.
Affiliate links
An affiliate link is a normal link to a retailer with a code attached that tells them we sent you. If you buy something after clicking one, the retailer pays us a small percentage of the sale.
Two things worth being clear about. You pay exactly the same price — the commission comes out of the retailer’s margin, and using our link never makes an item more expensive. And we do not see who you are. We receive a count of sales, not a list of customers; we cannot tell that you in particular bought anything.
The rule we actually work to
Every site says commissions do not influence their recommendations. Here is the specific version of that promise, so you can hold us to something concrete:
- The research comes first, the link comes last. We work out what the evidence supports, then check whether an affiliate programme happens to exist for it. Never the other way round.
- The reasoning is always on the page. When we recommend something, the article says why — the specification, the study, the practical reason. If we cannot explain the reasoning, we do not make the recommendation.
- We will tell you when the cheap option is fine. Plenty of pet problems are solved by something that earns us nothing, or by doing nothing at all. Those answers appear in our articles because they are the right answers.
- We will tell you when to see a vet instead. No product recommendation replaces a diagnosis, and we will not let a commission delay someone’s vet visit.
Advertising
We intend to display advertising through Google AdSense. When it goes live, this is how it works:
Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve adverts based on your previous visits to this and other websites. Google’s use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve adverts to you based on your visit to our site and other sites on the internet.
You can turn off personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings, or opt out of participating vendors at aboutads.info and, in Europe, youronlinechoices.eu. Opting out means less relevant adverts, not fewer of them.
Adverts are chosen by Google’s systems, not by us. We do not control which advertisers appear, and an advert appearing here is not an endorsement. If you see one that is misleading or inappropriate, tell us and we will block that advertiser.
What we do not do
| Not accepted, at any price | Why |
|---|---|
| Sponsored articles | You could not tell which articles were bought and which were not, which would make all of them worthless |
| Paid reviews or paid placement in a list | A ranking someone paid for is an advert wearing a ranking’s clothes |
| Payment to remove or soften criticism | If we thought something was poor, that is the part you needed to read |
| Guest posts with links sold to third parties | Google treats this as spam, and readers get content written for a backlink rather than for them |
| Free products in exchange for positive coverage | If we ever test something supplied free, the article will say so plainly and the verdict stays ours |
Programmes we are part of
None yet. When we join an affiliate programme or network, we will name it here and update the date at the top of this page. If you are reading this and the list is still empty, nothing on this site is earning a commission.
Holding us to it
If you think a recommendation on this site reads like it was bought, say so. Email contact@helpthispet.com with the article, and we will either explain the reasoning or change it. We would rather fix an article than defend one.
The same goes for a missing disclosure. If an article contains an affiliate link without a notice at the top, that is a mistake on our part and we want to know about it.
In short
We would rather earn less and be worth reading than earn more and be another pet site whose recommendations cannot be trusted. That is not a moral position so much as a practical one: the only thing this site has to offer is that its advice is honest.